Sunday, April 26, 2015

Congratulations to 8th grader, Elaine Wen. Elaine has done it again!! She won 1st place in the 2015 State Spanish Poster Contest. Her poster was selected as the best Spanish Language representation picture in the State of Georgia. Way to go!

FSAPS 8th grader, Chloe Richardson earned a perfect score on her individual event (IE) during the Junior Thespian Festival in Nashville, TN. Not only was she invited to perform her IE on the main stage during the convention, but she is also invited to attend the High School Level Thespian Conference in Lincoln, Nebraska and perform in the National Individual Events Showcase! Congratulations, Chloe on your spectacular achievement!

Once again, FSA Math Team shined like a star @ the GCTM’s 15th Annual Middle School Math Competition on Saturday April 18th in Centerville, GA. Our team received 2nd place as a team out of 17 teams participated from all over GA. All FSA Math Team members placed among top 10 students and received an individual trophy as the recognition of their spectacular performance at this math competition. Individual placements are as follows:

Mira Mutnick – 3rd place

Charlie Furniss – 4th place

Karuna Kumar – 6th place

Katherine Li – 8th place

At the end of the competition, during Fright’ning Light’ning fun & challenging round members of each team answered oral relay questions at the stage. FSA Math team won 1st place as a team @ the Fright’ning Light’ning fun & challenging round among 17 school participated and won a big bag of candy!!

Please be reminded that all FSA families are invited to the end of year family picnics at the following dates for each grade:

May 11 - 7th and 8th Grade Family Picnic at 6:00PM
May 12 - 6th Grade Family Picnic at 6:00PM
May 13 - 2nd Grade thru 5th Grade Family Picnic at 6:00PM
May 15 - Pre-K thru 1st Grade Family Picnic at 6:00PM

The picnic will be at the Istanbul Cultural Center Complex at 591 North Main Street, Alpharetta. We will have the picnic rain or shine since Istanbul Center has a big closed placed reserved for our picnic as well.

FSAPS students, teachers and parents enjoyed another wonderful Turkey Trip this spring break. Our group visited Istanbul, Izmir (Aegean Coast) and Antalya (Mediterranean Coast). Next year, beside the Turkey Trip, we will also offer a Costa Trip to our families. Please see some pictures from this year's trip here:

This past week Earth Balloon was at our school. Students visited the Earth Balloon and it was AWESOME! We were able to sit together inside a giant balloon of the Earth and discuss the different parts of the Earth including: continents, oceans, landforms... Students had some great questions while we were discussing. It was a fun adventure! A BIG THANK YOU goes to one of our wonderful parents, Mrs. Debra Mutsch and Mrs. Kate Webster for arranging and coordinating Earth Balloon for our students.

FSAPS students had an amazing ITBS/SAT camp this weekend. A total of 21 students attended this great cabin camp in Helen, Georgia. During the camp students worked on five different practice tests in detail. Students had lots of time to discuss questions and learn more during the camp. Students had lots of fun as well. Other than the games in the cabin, they also enjoyed the nature and city Helen tour. We thank FSAPS teachers for organizing this wonderful camp for our students.

Mrs. Whitlock's first graders just finished exploring motion. We learned that a force affects how something moves, using either a push or pull. We explored forces such as gravity and magnetism. We also got to experiment with different kinds of pushes and pulls. One of our favorite experiments was using rubber bands to launch toy race cars.

Last week, Pre-K and kindergarten students were able to explore magnets. We discussed how magnets attract metal objects, and we discussed how magnets can attract or repel objects. Students were able to explore magnets first hand, and had a great time doing it! They were able to see how a magnet can attract an object without actually touching it first.

FSAPS mothers enjoyed the final Mothers Night Out for the 2014-15 school year. It was a fun evening celebrating Indian culture. Mothers wore beautiful sarees, chose lovely bindis, ate delicious food, danced, got henna designs painted on their hands and danced even more! But most importantly, they made new friends! Mother Night Outs will continue at our new campus next year.

Music and Drumming (3rd - 5th Grades)
During this semester Music & Drumming we have learned how people go to great lengths to connect with others through music whether cultural differences, religious beliefs, borders or physical boundaries. We have learned that those in countries not as rich as ours, make their own instruments out of recycled goods/garbage and play in an orchestra! We have composed and arranged our own music within different boundaries/guidelines decided upon as a team. We are also working on our OWN composition for a potential performance in the spring talent show!

Music and Movement (1&2 Grade)

“Feel the beat in your feet!” During this year in Music and Movement, students have enjoyed learning new dance steps from a variety of different styles of music. We are learning how to differentiate a variety of sounds we hear with respect to instruments and their respective families, musical genres with how they make us feel, and important musical figures. We LOVED our jazz unit back in February and always earn time at the end, to dance like “Mr. Bonjangles.” We have overall sharpened our skills with note reading, working as a team and creating rhythms/music both with our bodies, and different instruments.

The Science Olympiad Team is currently accepting orders for this limited edition shirt. Proceeds from shirt sales will help fund the Science Olympiad team's trip to the National Tournament in Lincoln, Nebraska.

While this shirt is designed to be worn on FSA's STEAM Day on May 8, it can also be worn on any Friday with uniform pants or skirt both this year and next.

You'd pay over $25 for a stiff and uncomfortable uniform polo shirt. This soft, 100% comfy cotton t-shirt is a bargain at only $15!

To order, please complete the information below and return it to the front office with your payment (checks made payable to FSAPS.) Deadline for orders is Monday, April 27.

Our DI teams need your help to send us to Global Finals in Knoxville, TN!
Beginning on Monday, we will begin the following fundraiser sales before school and during lunch:

Raffle Tickets!
Win a big basket full of goodies - winners will be drawn on Friday, May 1st
(one for Elementary, one for Middle)

Duct Tape Mr. Sener!
Add strips of duct tape to stick Mr. Sener to the wall the morning of STEAM day!
(discounted prices for signing up early!)
PRINCIPAL SENER’S NOTE: Why on the earth people would come up with such crazy ideas! Oh well, I accepted it since students advanced to Global Competition. But I can’t keep myself and wonder what happened to the noble idea of actually having a big delicious cake on the face. Are those good days gone long time ago? Maybe a cake after the tape and we call it Double Strike. Just thinking…. :)

Soak Mrs. Campbell with a Water Gun!
Firing squad style - during the Last Blast Carnival!
(discounted prices for signing up early!)

Spatter Paint Extravaganza!
Put on old clothes and spatter paint to your heart's content during the Last Blast Carnival!
(Sign up NOW and purchase a canvas and/or a commemorative T-shirt)

Before leaving for Spring Break, the students in Ms. Fichter's and Ms. P's Kindergarten classes had a blast celebrating SPRING together with their outdoor Show-and-Tell. Students were able to bring their favorite outdoor toy to share with their Kindergarten friends. The students in these two classes showed off their scooter, bike, roller blade, basketball, and bubble blowing skills! The students had a great time sharing with their classmates, and teaching each other how to use their different outdoor toys. It was a great day to be in Kindergarten!

The fact that our team achieved this in our first year attending Destination Imagination is simply amazing! We are so proud of our students, teachers and parents. A small school with a BIG HEART for sure! Way to go!
Please see the wonderful recognition letter we received from State today here:

"Congratulations Rebecca Millar and the Fulton Science Academy DI Teams! Thank-you for your role Destination Imagination education this year. The skills these students have learned in DI will be evidenced in their future academic and career successes. Yes, they learned STEM + Arts + Service Learning (STEAMS). Yes, they learned 21st century skills. Yes, the DI Curriculum was connected to educational standards including Common Core. But, I am sure you discovered that DI is so much MORE! Our goal is to engage the Curiosity, Courage and Creativity of every participant so that they remain interested in the world around them, enjoy working together to Creatively solve challenges, and most importantly have the Courage to follow their passions and present their solutions to others. In a single year, your students have mastered skills that companies such as NASA, Disney, 3M, IBM and others have found lacking in their current talent pool. HR directors from many prestigious organizations attend Global Finals and they say DI kids are their future!

The Fulton Science Academy Teams ALL brought home trophies! This is amazing for any school, but especially considering this is Fulton Science Academy's first year of participation in Destination Imagination! You are invited to Global Finals at the University of Tennessee in Knoxville! "

Members of the FSAPS Model United Nations team returned from their trip to New York City on Saturday. Representing the Uzbekistan, These students participated in the 10th Annual Global Classrooms UNA-USA International Middle School Model UN Conference, where they competed with over 1700 students from 13 countries.

Arriving in the city early, students braved the rain, wind, and even snow as they took in the many sites and shopping opportunities. This included the Statue of Liberty, Central Park, riding the subway.

The conference was opened with a ceremony at the United Nations Headquarters before moving to several floors of the Grand Hyatt hotel next to Grand Central Station. During the trip, students had many opportunities to ride the subway to visit far-flung places in the city, such as Central Park, Times Square (awe-inspiring at night), and the Statue of Liberty, among others. For many, buying sacks of candy at the venerable FAO Schwarz, gaming at the World of Nintendo, and eating at the many different restaurants was as exciting the competition itself.

The students had a great time participating in the conference, where they were split into various councils to discuss important issues facing the world today. During this time, students made friends with their peers from schools the US and around the world to present positions and resolutions to these issues.

This conference produced a terrific showing by FSAPS students in which several awards and honors were bestowed on our delegation.

In the World Health Organization, looking at ways to combat infectious diseases such as malaria and tuberculosis, Shreya Rekapalli and Aditi Tekkam were named Outstanding Delegation and also took the award for Best Position Paper. This is a terrific achievement, having one delegation win two awards at the same conference.

Congratulations to our wonderful students and coach Mr. Kaya for this wonderful achievement.

During the event, our students also had an opportunity to drive Army Robot Talon. TALON remotely operated vehicle is a small, tracked military robot designed for missions ranging from reconnaissance to combat.

2014-2015 GA Math League results are announced today afternoon!! J Congratulations to students and FSAPS Math Teachers!! J We are proud of our students!!

Team Placements in GA
8th grade Math League Team received 1st place in GA among 8th graders teams out of 38 schools participated!
Katherine Li
Charlie Furniss
Ananya Terala
Karuna Kumar

7th grade Math League Team received 10th place in GA among 7th graders teams among 7th graders out of 39 schools participated!
Prajwal Vedula
Christina Wang
Andrew Schneider
Sophie Chan

6th grade Math League Team received 8th place as a team in GA among 6th graders teams out of 36 schools participated!
Vishal Ram
Tyler Hecht
Mario Machado
Krishna Kumar

Individual Placements in GA:
6th grade contest:
Vishal Ram received 4th place in GA among 6th graders! His score is 31/35.
8th grade contest:
Katherine Li received 1st place in GA among 8th graders! Her score is 35/35!! J
Charlie Furniss received 7th place in GA among 8th graders as a 7th grade student! His score is 33/35!
Ananya Terala & Karuna Kumar both received 8th place in GA among 8th graders! Both scored 32/35!

We are very happy to announce that our web challenge team, NYAN, has been announced 2nd place winner in 2015 Web Challenge Competition at Atlanta Science Festival this weekend. Each student in the team also awarded with 400$ scholarship for secondary education. We congratulate our team members, Shreya REKAPALLI, Elaine WEN, Elena Juarez and their families for this great success!

Our students received lots of attention with their research, ideas and solutions.. One of the comments made at HowStuffWorks website about our student's work is as follows:

"Have you ever considered that the future of our food supply might be farming bugs? These middle schoolers did! Here’s their research and ideas on their website entry into the TAG-Ed WEBChallenge for the Atlanta Science Fair. Again, team NYAN (Not Your Average Ninjas) are middle school students!"

We have great news from GA State Mathcounts Competition that took place on March 23rd @ GATECH!!

One of our amazing students, Charlie Furniss, ranked as 15th GA Mathlete in GA State Mathcounts Competition out of 172 students participated from state of GA.

Only top 4 students are to represent GA in 2015 National Mathcounts Competiton. One of our amazing mathletes, Charlie Furniss, already set his goal to go to 2016 National Mathcounts Competition when he will be an 8th grade student.

FSA Private Math teachers and faculty are proud of Charlie Furniss!! J Way to go Charlie!!

Thank you for making the Student Council/ PVO book drive a huge success! We have received over 2300 books! After spring break we begin the task of sorting books to place them in their new home of either the media center, reading room, classroom libraries or we will be offering them to our book drive partner Read-It-Again for credit towards more books for our libraries.

The competition was fierce with girls in the lead for the first week, then it toggled back in forth each day with the number of books donated mounting. It was an exciting competition and at the end of the day the girls won. The girls will be receiving ice cream sandwiches or fruit pops on Friday 4/3 at lunch time. The boys will have the option to buy a frozen treat for $2.00.

If you didn't get the opportunity to send in your gently used books don't worry we will do this again next year!